Breeding Alpha Opae Ula (Metabetaeus lohena) - First Pregnancy!

[junwei38]

Hi,

May i know has anyone been successful breeding the Alpha Opae Ula (Metabetaeus lohena)? I have a few of these shrimps and would like to set up a seperate breeding tank just for them. Any tips for success?

For example, how often to feed these shrimps and what should they be fed? Should these shrimps be mixed with some opae ula for them to 'boss' around? I also heard the difficulty is raising the young, if I do get meta larvaes, what should i feed them? Will normal spirulina algae cut it?

Any experience breeding/keeping them would be greatly appreciated.

[jonesinfershrimp]

no exp. with them, but im assuming that if they live in the exact same space as the opae's it cant be too hard to rear them. an alpha only tank would be ideal for them (you, and a breeding program) thought i would think so because theres no competition for the algae. it may be wise to remove the parents after the larva are dropped for even less competition. im trying to think of whats common sense, but then again, no exp. with them. cant wait to see what the outcome is. (following this for my own personal information gain sorry)

[junwei38]

From what i can gather from my online research, the survival rate of the larvae are very low. How low, I am not too sure. I am also not able to find any information giving tips on how to breed them, what to feed the larvae, or find any reference anywhere that shows someone has successfully bred them in captivity.

From my experience, they seem to be as hardy as the opae ulas, however they are pretty territorial and do not care much about being in the presence of other alphas. If two alphas happen to meet each other, they would usually run off in the opposite direction upon contact.

There is also no information on what is a suitable size breeding tank or how many would it take to breed a colony. There is documentation however that says how the presence of alphas would hinder the breeding of the opaes in the same tank, but not information on the vice versa impact.

Basically there is very little information in this forum, or other online sources on this species.

[KenCotigirl]

I have tried to breed these shrimp. Getting them to berry is a snap. Then comes the difficulties. They are lower order shrimp. Their larvae go through several stages. My issue has been feeding them. I have some posts on this site if you search.

Kenp

[junwei38]

Hi Kencontigirl,

Thanks for your posts. They were insightful, however there does not seem to be updates for a long time. Have you been more successful since? From what i could tell, the posts stopped after a while and it does not seem the larvae made it to adulthood.

[jonesinfershrimp]

they must require "green water" then this sounds like a fun challange. i hope you can successfully breed them junwei. the documentation of it if you do would be invaluable, not only to us here, but science as a whole.

[KenCotigirl]

I still have the shrimp. They are definitely cool shrimp but hide all the time. They will come out when being feed and they seem more active at night. They seem as hardy as the opae ula.

I tried the 'green water' several times to no avail. I guess they need larger food. I bought powdered food 100 micron size I believe. Issue with feeding is fouling the water. I just haven' t spent the time for additional tries. Maybe this summer. My next try will be green water with feeding (how much?). I think I will add a couple snails and some opae ula. Need to keep the excess food under control. Water changes are tough. Easy to lose larvae when removing water.

[junwei38]

If a 100 micro size food is needed, why cant we just use the usual powdered spirulina algae? It doesnt foul the water easily, stays suspended mid-water for a long time, and each flake is easily around 100 micron.

And since normal opae ula or alphas eat them, they wont stay long enough to foul the water as long as the tank is not overfed. Also there is no need to segregate the larvae out which seems like a tedious process as you have previously described.

Unless people have observed the alphas actually eating their own offspring, or that the larvae need a different water salinity to survive, it seems like leaving the larvae in original tank would be a good idea?

[KenCotigirl]

I placed the larvae in full salt water. I would have to check but I believed they all died within a day in brackish water. Also I believe the M. lohena adults would eat the larvae. They have pincers that the H. rubra do not. I would surmise they would eat the larvae if given a chance. I have found that spiralina sinks and is not neutrally buoyant. I will check my previous posts for the size of food I have. Just found it. Golden Pearls 5-50 microns.

[junwei38]

I see. I'm wondering why would the larvae die in brackish water when the natural habitat of the alphas are in the same anchialine pools as the opae where full saltwater environment doesn't occur.

I have also read about the golden pearls in your posts and some research on them indicated that the pearls tend to foul the water easily. Is that true?

[KenCotigirl]

I had the same question about brackish vs full salt. It was explained to me that the larvae would float out to sea and return. There are I believe two other species with M. minutus being very similar to M. lohena and found in ankialine pools. Also M. lohena was found on Easter island. Research suggests that M. lohena has effective sea dispersal and may have only recently arrived in Hawaii.

As for the golden pearls fouling the water I believe it is no different than any other food. Feeding fouls water.

[junwei38]

I have been thinking about the easiest way to go about this. How about creating a separate container with full ocean salinity, and transferring a berried alpha over once it is identified? That way when the larvae are released, it would be easier to just catch the one alpha out while leaving the larvae in the original tank.

Also, the larvae do not experience the shock of transferring from low salinity to high salinity water. Of course this method would require the alphas to survive in a full salinity environment, and for the tank to be a bare tank so that the alpha can be easily netted out.

[junwei38]

I came home today and to my surprise.... I have my first berried alpha!!! This alpha got pregnant in a tank where there are only 3 alphas, so I guess im pretty lucky because there must be at least 1 male inside! I was afraid they were all females

I guess its time to start monitoring and taking pictures!! *excited*

[jonesinfershrimp]

congratulations! thats awesome. i hope you can figure out the best way to successfully raise the babies.

[NancyM]

Those pictures are awesome. I really need something besides my phone to take pics with.